


Trying a Gentle Hand at Ramen-ce

by metronome_asteroid



Series: A Gentler World [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Chinese Food, First Dates, Fluff, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 19:12:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12488864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metronome_asteroid/pseuds/metronome_asteroid
Summary: “When I become Hokage, I’m going to change the Hyuuga clan (for you)!”Neji tries hard to ask Naruto out to eat ft. very supportive teammates.





	Trying a Gentle Hand at Ramen-ce

**Author's Note:**

> (I know that I haven’t gotten to the main part of this story yet but I wanted to get the beginning of it out here. I’ve been meaning to write this for the longest time! Please stay tuned for more updates, I’ll try to complete them as soon as I can.  
> My main tumblr is @ceilingmirrors, my writing tumblr is @metronomeasteroid shoot me an ask if you’re curious about anything!)

_“When I become Hokage, I’m going to change the Hyuuga clan (for you)!”_

            Neji had picked up enough after Hanabi and her trashy magazines to know that he could take the words Naruto spat towards him during their Chunin match as a veiled proposal. But he wouldn’t.

Just as he wasn’t going to take this breakfast…thing with Naruto as a date, though those magazines with glossy pages yelling titles such as “Top 10!! Flirty Phrases Guaranteed to Catch Their Heart!” and “How to Know if the Ninja of Your Dreams is Into You!!” might suggest otherwise. Neji had skimmed through only a _few_ of such articles (though he would take this to his grave and deny it on pain of death: he was well-prepared to endure such pains ever since committing to life as a ninja), he was sure he would rather snort an entire pumpkin through his nose than interrogate Naruto about _anything_ , let alone...anything remotely romantic.

Anyway, this wasn’t exactly a date, but Neji didn’t know what else to call it.

_Concentrate, Neji. Slow your breathing and allow each breath to travel through your entire body. Also, shut up and stop thinking about Naruto._

Usually his routine of early morning meditation calmed and quieted his thoughts, but today Neji’s nerves grated on him the way Tenten sharpened her weapons: forceful and lethal. Not heading straight to training the way he should have was throwing him off, even if he promised to meet Tenten later in the day and even though Tenten would have killed him if he bailed out on Naruto now.

Neji suspected that she had noticed how much it was on his mind during training and discretely urged Lee, who usually refrained from commenting on such personal matters, to talk to him about it. It had taken him weeks of steeling himself and convincing from Tenten, then Lee, then both of them at once. The team members had been packed into a small booth at a restaurant Tenten found with Lee while restaurant hopping and both swore that the sour and spicy noodles were explosively good.

“You,” Tenten chewed as she pointed her chopsticks at him, “deserve to be happy too, you know.” Her eyes narrowed pointedly.

Neji stared at her for a second before looking down to take another bite of his bowl of shrimp rice noodles, unsure. As he opened his mouth to speak, Lee cut in with an oil-splattering slurp that drowned out the noise of other customers. Neji leaned back to avoid stains on his white garments.

“As expected of my eternal rival, thinking so deeply about matters of the heart!-”

Neji rolled his eyes, biting back a retort.

“-But Neji, you are overcomplicating your thoughts! Follow the call of your youth! Gai-sensei says you can only experience the bittersweetness of first love once in your life!”

Neji flushed. “What are you-!”

“No matter how it turns out, we’ll be here for you,” Tenten cut in quickly, elbowing Lee, whose eyes widened as he scrambled to utter apologies through a mouthful of noodles. “If you get rejected like I was, you can cry on my shoulder. If it works out, we celebrate.”

She grinned widely “Anyway, I still have to pay you back for the whole Temari thing. This works out perfectly!”

“But Tenten! I promised to treat for the next team dinner! And Neji, I will make sure to have an especially grueling match beforehand with you to take your mind off of such matters. It is good to keep reinforce stability of the mind in order to combat anxiety of the heart!”

At seeing his teammates’ enthusiasm and support, the tension Neji hadn’t even noticed in himself dissipated. He felt lighter.

“Tell me when you’re planning the date! I’ll give you a free fortune-telling. Oh, but tell me a couple of days beforehand so Lee and I aren’t on a restaurant tour that day,” Tenten said as she leaned over to affectionately cuff Lee on the shoulder.

“I believe I’ve found a great curry place on the other side of Konoha! Feel free to join us if you would like!” Lee was now finishing off a mountain of spring rolls.

“I…think I will have to decline that offer. But do tell me about other places you find. The _non-spicy_ places,” Neji emphasized, recalling an unfortunate encounter he had with low-spice curry. They had claimed was mild enough that even _he_ could eat it, but he beat their expectations once again by nearly crying from the heat. (Neji suspected there was a secret agenda to either raise his low spice tolerance or torment him with it.)

Tenten and Lee had insisted on paying for the meal despite his protests: they claimed that he should be saving his money for his date with Naruto (he’d blushed profusely at their wording), even though Neji knew that his pocket money was probably more than Tenten and Lee’s combined.

He gave in at the end: his teammates were infectiously enthusiastic. Carrying their energy with him, Neji’s mind raced with thoughts of Naruto on his way home.

**Author's Note:**

> Pointing chopsticks at someone: It’s rude, so don’t do it if you’re eating with someone you don’t know! Tenten did it to drive home her point to someone she’s familiar with. That said, it’s still not super good to do it…
> 
> Sour and spicy noodles: This is a Sìchuān dish, known as suān là fěn in Chinese. It’s made with potato starch noodles which are chewier and thicker than normal flour noodles and usually topped with crunchy peanuts, beef, and some greens. The “sour” part of the name comes from the vinegar in it (it’s not like sour patch kids or anything!). It has nice numbing feeling when you eat it from the Sìchuān style peppers, and the taste (if you can tolerate the spice level unlike Neji, haha) is quite refreshing and addictive! I recommend it :-)
> 
> Temari: Yes, Tenten confessed to Temari and got rejected! Temari was probably Tenten’s first crush, at least in this story. It’s sad that it didn’t work out this time but maybe there’s a certain shy, long-haired kunoichi in Tenten’s near future…?


End file.
